Being an office assistant
2009
Samantha’s first few weeks
Coming into events I had an idea of what was involved, after having organised some more low key events myself. It was through doing these events with the Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award and also working alongside Learning and Teaching Scotland I got a feeling that I could see myself working in this industry. People may say office work is dull and monotonous but if you were to compare this office and its environment to school you would be so wrong. For example, what other 18 year old can come into work in the morning and her boss offers to make her a cup of tea?
After hearing all these wonderful things about my boss to be I was not nervous going into the office on my first day. I had some ideas of what to expect but these were more than definitely exceeded. As I a came in the door I was greeted by Jacky, Offered a cup of tea and shown to my new desk. He introduced me to my faithful friend (The laptop) and the different functions I would need on a day to day basis. My first day flew in, even though I was working on spreadsheets for the majority of the day. On day two I was in for a treat, when I went in at the start of the day Jacky informed me that I would be joining him on a site visit to the Holiday Inn hotel in the city centre. This was my first ever official site visit and I loved it! We were shown around the hotel and even into one of the executive suites. Having never seen one of these I stood in a state of shock.
Watching Jacky in action was quite inspiring if I am honest. Mind you at the time most of what he was saying and the questions he was asking was way over my head. But with the work he has given me to do in the office and listening to conversations in the office I am getting to grips with some of the things we need to know when organising the events. Back in the office I had a few emails to send with regards to this site visit and from here I made my first contacts.
The week flew in and before I knew it, it was Friday. Now for those people who leave work on a Friday and spend the weekends dreading Monday mornings I must say I was definitely not one of those people I couldn’t wait to see what week two brought me. In my first week I loved every minute of it, you could possibly describe me that week as being like a lost puppy unless I was told to do something I was very unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. It was no one person’s fault everyone was still trying to get used to the fact I was there.
Week two was a lot more comfortable, I was given tasks to do and if I was unsure the team were more than willing to help out, which was great. Jacky asked me as an ongoing task to create a filing system for the office. The one already in place was let’s just say inadequate. I was asked as part of this task to update contact information within different venues that we could use in the future. So after sorting out a massive pile of different brochures from venues across the UK I set myself down to creating a system that would be easy to use for everyone when it comes to looking for venues. I put them all on the computer! This although it sounds boring to some people, I actually enjoyed it. I got to get in touch with lots of different people from lots of different places and from this have arranged meetings and site visits to different venues. So I’m not just the office admin person, I am getting to go along with the team and learn what to do on site visits. Best of both worlds I think!
Week three I must admit has been long but I’ve been rather busy, Jacky has shown me the ropes on the finance books and has left me to look after them. Now I think that is an achievement! In my first three weeks I have been entrusted with the company finances, paying things into the bank and everything. Again what 18 year old gets to do that?
So what have I learned in my first three weeks? Well where do I start? I have learned how to work in an office. I have been shown how to work the photocopier, the franking machine, I have learned different functions on the computer like how to mail merge, make badges, labels, how to print to envelopes. As well as getting to grips with the filing. I must say that it has been very successful first three weeks and in my opinion I am one of the luckiest 18 year olds around. After failing one of my exams and not getting to university with my friends, now I am glad I never got to go. I come home from work and can relax and do my own thing; they are all stressing about exams and essays and have no free time. Student life is not what it was advertised to be! I work in an amazing environment with some amazing people have probably one of the best bosses you could ask for. If in my first week I had any doubts about my workload and fitting in as part of the team, these are all gone. I was made to feel so welcome by everyone. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me.
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